1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a customized three-dimensional (3D) printing robot that is configured such that components of the robot are produced using a 3D printing technology. In particular, the invention enables a user to directly select an appearance design for each component before assembly of the components so that an entire appearance design of the robot can be customized according to a user's taste.
2. Description of the Related Art
Assembly toys, in particular, assembly robots, have been provided for the intellectual development and interest of children for a long time. These assembly robots have been developed to be operable using power.
According to the development of an assembly structure, an operation structure and so on of the assembly robots, the such robots have been developed as high-tech robots for studying, and enjoying basics, applications and so on of the robots as well as for playing of children and thus have been gradually utilized in the hobby activity of adults.
A representative one of these high-tech robots is MINDSTOMS® sold by LEGO Company of Denmark (hereinafter referred to as “MINDSTOMS”). MINDSTORMS is a product in which various kinds of joint components are assembled with a base kit (a program brick) including a CPU, various control modules, a motor, and the like so that the robot can be made in various forms. This product has been widely used in universities for introductory robotics and robotic programming courses.
Furthermore, many companies in the world have launched assembly robots that can be directly assembled and can be inputted with operation information by a user using various blocks and sensors.
One feature of these assembly robots is that the most of these assembly robots adopt a block or module type assembly method is adopted so that the robots can be assembled in various forms according to the user's taste, or a purpose for use of the robots.
However, even though the conventional assembly robots, such as the well-known MINDSTORM product produced by the LEGO Company, can be assembled by respective users in various forms, these robots are limited by predetermined component designs sold by the respective manufacturers. Thus, these robots may not be strictly customized robots.
That is, in the most of conventional assembly robots, shapes of the robots may only be changed according to each structure of the components, which have standardized designs for assembly and production convenience. Therefore, the appearance design of the completed robot is limited or is of poor quality.
In practice, the product of MINDSTORM of LEGO Company has a limit that it is difficult to assemble components. Furthermore, even though the product may be appropriate for the production of robots in different kinds and different operation modes because the robots are completed by merely the assembly of modulated components, the appearance designs of these robots has no distinctiveness because they are almost identical to each other when the same kind (or similar kind) of robots are produced. Accordingly, it is problematic in that the kinds and designs of robots, which can be produced by MINDSTORM, should be only implemented in an assembly structure verified on the Internet.
In particular, in the case of the conventional modulated assembly robots, the designs thereof may be necessarily restricted because components are standardized in a block form.